Warwick district, in reversal, to provide school a nurse

Warwick — The Warwick Central Valley School District has reversed an earlier decision and will provide all-day nursing coverage at St. Stephen-St. Edward Catholic School.

Comment

By John Sullivan

recordonline.com

By John Sullivan

Posted Sep. 6, 2012 at 2:00 AM

By John Sullivan
Posted Sep. 6, 2012 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

Warwick — The Warwick Central Valley School District has reversed an earlier decision and will provide all-day nursing coverage at St. Stephen-St. Edward Catholic School.

The school-board decision resolves concerns that children at the Catholic school would be left without a full-time nurse as the school year began. About a third of the 200-plus students in the school, which spans kindergarten through eighth grade, have sensitive medical conditions, which has elevated fears for student safety.

The district had planned in August to leave the school without a full-time on-site nurse, but the board decided last week to fund a registered nurse and a nurse's aide who will split two part-time shifts and cover the full day at St. Stephen-St. Edward. Principal Mary Lou Moccia said a substitute will fill in for the first few days of school until the two positions can be filled.

"We will have somebody, and there will be somebody here at all times," she said.

Warwick officials said two weeks ago that they had decided not to fund the nurse's position as the result of conversations with examiners from the state Comptroller's Office who audited the district in the spring. The auditors had questioned district officials in a way that made them fear penalties for retaining the position, they said, since the requirement to do so ended with the closure of Pine Island Elementary last year.

A spokesman from the comptroller's office denied that its staff offered any such feedback to the district.

On Wednesday, district spokeswoman Maureen Westphal said that the examiners seemed to suggest the district would be penalized for providing St. Stephen-St. Edward with a nurse. "We were under the impression that the comptroller's office would cite us in their final (audit) report," she said.

Eileen Patterson, a mother who led the fight against the district's decision to pull the nurse, said parents of students at the school were satisfied with the school board's decision. She credited the shift to the efforts of parents who researched laws and filed Freedom of Information Law requests to come up with an informed counter to the district's position.

"It was a lot of work in a short amount of time," Patterson said. "We didn't go at them (the school board) with insults. It was a logical, reasonable approach that we took, and I think that's what did it."